The Misguided War on Drugs

There are many problems in the United States. Many of these problems can be seen as minor while a few can be seen as major. One of the biggest problems in the U.S. happens to be the misguided war on drugs. This so called solution has caused the U.S. to shovel more than a trillion dollars over a span of 40 plus years. Over these 40 years the war on drugs has not made that much of a difference for a number of reasons, which include: an abuse of power, a waste of taxpayers’ dollars, and a bigger attack on supply rather than demand.

There are many cases where police are charged because of unnecessary force. Many of these police officers get off without a hair on their head harmed because of some kind of evidence. With the war on drugs active it is easier for a cop to claim that a victim of police brutality was carrying drugs and resisted arrest. In saying this the police officer justifies their actions. This is only the beginning of the abuse. It is known that Latinos and African-Americans are more commonly arrested than Caucasians when it comes to drug usage. According to Carson “approximately 57 percent people incarcerated in state prisons, and 77 percent of people incarcerated in federal prisons for drug offenses are Black or Latino, compared to 30 percent of the U.S. population.” Once these people are put into jail it destroys their chances for benefits in education and housing. This is all because of an abuse of power due to the war on drugs.

With the war on drugs an active thing there must be some kind of funding for it. In “10 Ways the Drug War Is Causing Massive Collateral Damage to Our Society” Tony Newman mention how the “U.S. federal, state, and local governments now spend $50 billion per year trying to make America ‘drug free.’” For $50 billion annually people would think that this program is a huge success, but this is wrong. “According to DEA estimates we capture less than 10% of all illicit drugs.” So by facts we are paying $50 billion a year for a program with a 90% failure rate (The United States War on Drugs).So, the American people paying $50 billion for the war on drugs, and it is not even producing major results. The money from the public is not only used to try to prevent the use of drugs but also to pay for people put into jail because of drugs. In a study it was found out that the United States spends an average of $30,000 annually to incarcerate in inmate but only $11,665 per public school student (Branson). Since when has punishing a drug user become more important than educating our children? The money being used to incarcerate these inmates could be used to demote the usage of drugs which will contribute to the fight on the demand side, which is much needed.

The United States is not paying all this money but gets little results for one main reason. The fight is more focused on fighting the supply rather than the demand. When the war on drugs began Nixon proclaimed “America’s